”I have – over the last five years – quite rapidly become a Malthusian. I have been won over by the data, and I have been won over by the logic of the math.”

– Jeremy Granthaminvestment strategist

”As I see it, humanity needs to reduce its impact on the Earth urgently and there are three ways to achieve this: we can stop consuming so many resources, we can change our technology and we can reduce the growth of our population.”

– Sir David Attenborough

”Population is the multiplier of everything we do wrong.”

– Dr. Martha M. Campbell

”Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.”

– Kenneth Bouldingeconomist

”A growing nation is the greatest ponzi game ever contrived.”

– Paul Samuelsoneconomist

”In today’s full world, resources are not only scarce but have become the limiting factor”

– Herman Dalyformer World Bank senior economist

”The free-market fundamentalists will tell you that more growth, more stuff and 9 billion people going shopping is the best we can do. They’re wrong. We can be more. We can be much more.”

– Paul Gildingauthor: The Great Disruption

”Because of this civilization’s obsession with growth, its demise is 100 percent predictable. We simply cannot go on living this way.”

– Adam Sacks

”There will inevitably come a time that the society drastically needs to change the way it interacts with the environment, or it will lose its coherence.”

– Sander van der Leeuw

”Who’s gonna stand up and save the Earth? Who’s gonna say that she’s had enough?”

– Neil Young

”We’re going to need some kind of radical break with our past behavior if we’re to engineer a viable future.”

– Mark BuchananBloomberg columnist

”We can’t frack our way back to economic prosperity; nor can we unplug a coal plant, plug in a solar panel, and go on expanding population and consumption.”

– Richard Heinberg

”Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”

– Edward Abbey

”We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children.”

– Joe Rommphysicist

”We can’t frack our way back to economic prosperity; nor can we unplug a coal plant, plug in a solar panel, and go on expanding population and consumption.”

– Richard Heinberg

”This is not about whales anymore. It’s about us.”

– Thomas Friedman

”Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”

– E.F. Schumacherauthor: Small is Beautiful

”We can share the earth and take care of it together, rather than trying to possess it, destroying the beauty of life in the process.”

– Dalai Lama

”A growing nation is the greatest ponzi game ever contrived.”

– Paul Samuelsoneconomist

”You don’t have a conservation policy unless you have a population policy.”

– Paul Ehrlichauthor: The Population Bomb

”The truth is this: the Earth cannot provide enough food and fresh water for 10 billion people, never mind homes, never mind roads, hospitals and schools.”

– Richard Branson

”Our economic activity is at war with the planet.”

– Naomi Klein

Urban Growth

The “Grow or Die” Myth – an Illusion of Prosperity

The vast majority of U.S. and many other communities compete with one another for job recruitment and the in-migration which follows job growth. This is driven by belief in the “Grow or Die” myth.

Evidence suggests these communities are caught in a vicious circle. The growth they court results in numerous externalized costs. The inevitable result is tax increases, service level declines, and infrastructure backlogs. More growth is then sought in the belief it will generate revenue needed to solve the problems created by growth in the first place.

More effective, less destructive approaches to healthy local economies focus on cultivating success for local businesses, increasing efficiency and reducing waste.